Everyone thinks they know Los Angeles, but when I moved here from London I wanted to find out if there was more to explore than the Walk of Fame and the studio tours. To my surprise, I uncovered a side of LA that took me into the city’s history, architecture, art and a few other unexpected places: downtown.
Day One
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Geographer CC BY-SA 3.0
Westin Bonaventure Hotel
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The Last Bookstore
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Arts District
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Discover Los Angeles
The glittering Westin Bonaventure is an architectural marvel that looks like a space ship landed in downtown—no wonder Interstellar filmed here. Constructed in 1976, its circular glass columns have external elevators, every room has floor-ceiling windows, and huge skylights rise above the lower levels. Irregular-shaped walkways wind everywhere, and you can relax in circular booths that hang over water fountains – it’s a unique base for your exploring to begin.
Downtown is bursting with modern art and public parks hidden among the skyscrapers and building lobbies. Colorful sculptures and pieces by Leiberman, Calder and Nevelson are within a few blocks of the hotel, and at 444 S. Flower Street (the Citigroup Center) there is a real gem: a Robert Rauschenberg piece called Fargo Podium, which has newspapers, photographs, maps, prints, etc. under glass.
A few blocks from there at 5th and Spring is the Last Bookstore, which encompasses two storeys of an old bank. The vaults are still in place, one of which, appropriately enough, houses the true crime section, and they sell new and used books as well as used vinyl, DVDs and CDs. Regularly voted one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world, they have a book tunnel and peep hole famous as selfie spots for Instagrammers.
For lunch, the newly-opened Settecento Italian restaurant in the Maguire Gardens of the Central Library is the perfect spot, especially since it offers indoor/outdoor dining, and has a garden of tables under lights and chandeliers. Alternatively, sit at the bar and gaze at the hanging display of violins and trumpets while enjoying food from executive chef Francesco Angri. The parmigiana di melanzane fried eggplant dish is a standout.
In the afternoon or evening, take a ride share to the Angeleno Wine Company. The first winery to open in Los Angeles since Prohibition, it is one of a number of vintners looking to return wine to its original roots, sourcing grapes from around 50 miles of downtown and also the 250-year-old “Mother Vine” at the San Gabriel Mission. Hosts Jasper and Amy will tell you about it over a glass of their organic seasonal varietals; try the Meadow Rose.
Day Two
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Central Library
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Angel's Flight railway
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Grand Central Market
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Discover Los Angeles
The Broad Museum
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Discover Los Angeles
The Broad Museum
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Blue Ribbon Garden in Walt Disney Concert Hall
If you’re feeling adventurous and your stay is in the summer months, why not kayak the LA River? Most Angelenos don’t even know LA has a river, but its 51 miles include much more than the 1930s-era concrete flood control channels we’ve seen in movies like Grease, Terminator 2 and Drive. Taking a kayak tour with LA Expeditions in one of the river’s “green” sections will allow you to float gently into an unexpected natural environment of herons, owls, deer and frogs. It’s like you’re in another green world.
Back downtown, visit the 100-year-old gold pyramid-topped Central Library, which is across the street from the Bonaventure. It hosts photography exhibits and lectures, and the weekend docent tours reveal some unexpected design delights both high overhead and among the book shelves. The 1986 arson here inspired the Susan Orlean best-seller The Library Book, which you’ll find among many treats at the excellent gift store.
For a late lunch, the Grand Central Market at 3rd and Broadway offers a dizzying choice: oysters to donuts, pupusas to pastries, and BBQ to burritos. Busy, loud and full of neon signs, this opened as the Wonder Market in 1917, selling well-to-do Bunker Hill residents fruit, vegetables, spices and more. Across the street from the market is the Bradbury, a 132-year curvo-linear skylight building lined with elaborate black staircases and elevators. You’ll recognize it from The Artist and Blade Runner.
On the opposite side of the market on Hill Street is the orange funicular railway, Angels Flight. The two wooden trolleys, Olivet and Sinai, are counterbalanced to go up and down the 33-percent-grade slope to Bunker Hill from morning until night. The ride takes less than a minute and costs $1.50, but is worth every penny – it’s said that since 1901, when it started operating, some 100,000,000 have taken that ride before you.
Downtown also has a number of large museums within walking distance. The Broad and MOCA are opposite each other on Grand Avenue, and make sure to go up all the steps onto the roof of the silver Disney Hall, where you’ll find the peaceful Blue Ribbon Garden. It features the large sculpture A Rose for Lilly, which was created from 200 broken vases by the architect of the Hall, Frank Gehry. If, however, the kids want dinosaurs and dioramas, then the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles at Exposition Park is a hop by subway or on wheels.
End your weekend trip by going up to the 35th floor of the Bonaventure to the BonaVista Lounge, one of the few remaining rotating restaurants in America. Order a cocktail and then sit back: over some 90 minutes your view across the nightlights of the city will transport you to a neon-drenched futuristic world, and if you’re lucky you might see the shining spotlights of the Hollywood Bowl in the distance.
Plan your Los Angeles weekend getaway at discoverlosangeles.com.